Duane ArenalesResearcher, 2004–2010

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Because of her experience at the National Library of Medicine, Duane Arenales was quickly typecast as a health and medicine researcher. As such, she learned more than she ever hoped to know about gout, rheumatism and many of the other maladies that afflicted—or might have afflicted—William, his family, and friends.

Arenales had an opportunity to investigate the efficacy of champagne as a cure for seasickness, the use of flannel bands over the abdomen to ward off diarrhea and cholera, celery as a cure for rheumatism and gout, and Swedish massage to improve mobility. Occasionally she strayed to such topics as the health of Bismarck, the death of a former president of Colombia, and whether being exposed to cold makes a person more susceptible to catching a cold.

 Arenales is a fifth-generation Texan. She graduated from the University of Colorado where she majored in French and minored in philosophy. Following a brief stint as a reporter for the Boulder Daily Camera, she joined the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer. After serving in Washington, DC and Montreal, Arenales resigned to marry another FSO. Then, having spent a number of years overseas in Iran, Brazil and the Dominican Republic, the family returned to the DC area, where Arenales earned her master’s degree in library and information services at the University of Maryland. She began a new career at the National Library of Medicine. She oversaw the staff responsible for the selection, acquisition and technical processing of materials for the library’s modern collection, retiring in 2004 as Chief of the Technical Services Division. Arenales lives in Bethesda, Maryland, where she is pursuing a long-standing interest in archaeology and anthropology. She travels frequently, especially to Colorado where her two daughters, son-in-law and two grandchildren live.